We already have pointed this out in such cases as "climate change" and "peak oil." Peak OIl is an especially obvious manipulation of scarcity themes. It has emerged fairly recently (maybe because they cannot hide it anymore) that there is literally a thousand years' worth of oil and gas in the Lower 48. And that's just what has been identified.
Oil is also likely abiotic, produced by geological forces. "Empty" wells keep filling back up. Another way of manipulating oil and its price is to make war. The Bush administration with its many oilmen invaded Iraq and made many oil speculators wealthy indeed.